Top 10 Recommended Reading List for Secondary Three

The third book in the Logan Family saga finds 17-year-old Cassie Logan, dreaming of college and law school in the midst of WWII. But no amount of schooling can prepare her for the explosive violence that takes place when her friend Moe lashes out at his white tormenters – an action unheard of in Mississippi. Moe will be in even greater danger if he stays in town, so it is up to Cassie, her brother, and their friends to accompany Moe on the road to Memphis – and to safety. 

Bullied, alienated and ugly – that was Pecola Breedlove’s life. All she ever wanted was normalcy, to fit in. She just wanted to be as beautiful and loved as all the blonde, blue-eyed children. Set in Lorain, Ohio, this novel tells the tragic story of eleven-year-old Pecola, an African-American girl from an abusive home. In the autumn of 1941, the marigolds in the Breedloves’ garden do not bloom, and a little life dies along with them. Pecola’s life changes- in painful, devastating ways. 

Montag is a fireman, but he starts fires instead of putting them out. In his world, his job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book. Montag never questions his job, but one day, he meets an eccentric young neighbour, Clarisse, who introduces him to a life with books. When Montag’s wife attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known, and seeks for answers in the commodity he once destroyed for a living.  

“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Atticus Finch stood by his principles, and defended Tom Robinson against rape accusations by a white girl. Meanwhile, Jem and Scout Finch set out on their own journey to befriend the town’s “monster”. To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, an anti-racist novel, a historical drama of the Great Depression and a sublime example of the Southern writing tradition. 

Four mothers, four daughters, four families. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong and just talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, the mothers gather to boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. 

This novel tells the tale of a man so burdened by propriety that he lets the love of his life slip through his fingers. In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper. Will he be able to seize the remains of the day, or is he all too late? 

George is a small, dark man with “sharp, strong features.” Lennie, his companion, is a simple-minded giant who loves petting soft things but often accidentally kills them. Drifters in search of work in an unforgiving world, George and his simple-minded friend have nothing; except each other and a dream — one day they will have some land of their own. They eventually find work on a ranch, but their hopes are doomed as Lennie becomes a victim of his own immense strength. George suddenly finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place.

Based on historical people and real events, Miller’s play is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. Rumours that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town’s most basic fears and suspicions; and when one woman is accused of being a witch, paranoia strikes the town. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the endless betrayals brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence. 

Trouble often comes with a late-night phone call. So it comes to Mei, as she comes face to face with the greatest trial of her life. Her English boyfriend Andy, arrested and accused of masterminding an international betting ring, has nine short days to prove his innocence, or face life in prison. Trapped under Singapore’s draconian system of justice, time is not on their side. This spirals into a search that will unearth long-hidden secrets and forever challenge the moral, ethical, and spiritual framework of their lives. 

Life comes crumbling down on Hernie Pereira all at once. His father is found to have terminal cancer, he loses his job, and his lover joins ‘Children of the Book’, a Christian sect committed to overthrowing an oppressive government. An old acquaintance promises Hernie literary success in exchange for information on the ‘Children of the Book’. He must now decide between the rewards of political corruption and his conscience. With passion and humour, this novel reveals a Singapore far different from the tourist brochures.